1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to design tools and coordination of engineering tasks between design tools. The invention is more particularly related to the coordination and synchronization of electronic design tasks between multiple tools and development activities.
2. Discussion of Background
As electronic design teams become geographically dispersed, there are changes in electronic design layout and logic that will inevitably occur concurrently. Even when designs are made in a single facility, concurrent changes are known to occur. Synchronizing these changes requires manual updates, which typically occur in a particular sequence of operations.
For example, FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a process and information flow from design entry to layout and manufacturing of an electronic circuit using Cadence tools. The concept 110 first envisioned by a designer/user is input using the Concept™ schematic entry tool (Concept™ and ConceptHDL™ are design entry tools of Cadence for schematic capture) and the data is then input into a packager-XL™ 120. The packager-XL™ 120 is a Cadence tool for assigning physical packages to logic gates in the design. It creates the pst*.dat files all of which is forwarded to ALLEGRO® 130.
ALLEGRO® 130 is a High-speed PCB layout, routing, and manufacturing tool. ALLEGRO® is a family of solutions that enhance designer productivity during the placement and routing stages of PCB design. ALLEGRO® is the industry's first true physical and electrical constraint-driven system addressing performance criteria, as well as a wide range of design, testability, and manufacturing concerns. The more advanced Allegro Expert™ offers support for electrical and high-speed design rules managed through a revolutionary, spreadsheet-based Constraint Manager.
Other tools that may be used at this point in the design process include SPECCTRA®, which is the leading solution for intelligent, auto-interactive routing of PCB systems and complex IC packages. Designed to handle high-density printed circuit boards that require complex design rules, SPECCTRA® employs powerful, shape-based algorithms to make the most efficient use of the routing area. In addition, SPECCTRA® integration with ALLEGRO® layout, SPECCTRAQuest™ signal integrity, and APD provides high-speed constraint management across the entire design flow. Only SPECCTRA® offers a myriad of options to meet your specific design challenges.
ALLEGRO® 130 produces a *view.dat file 135, which along with the PST*.dat 125 file is used to determine differences in design via design differences tool 140. Design differences files, referred to as a marker file 145 is also produced and the design differences and marker file are forwarded to a design association tool 150 which then provides the information for modification of concept 110. The loop continues until a full design is complete and forwarded to a manufacturing process.
One of the problems in this architecture is that changes like connectivity changes have to be either done manually or using design differences and design association tools. There could be loss of data if the user forgets a step in the flow. And, although advanced tools and families of tools are available for PCB and IC design, the design process is more cumbersome than ideal, mainly because of designers working at different locations and changing different parts of the design (often at different stages of the design process).